Articles Posted inEmployment Law

The law firm of Williams Oinonen LLC is grateful to have both partners, Mario Williams and Julie Oinonen, as honorees for the Rising Star Super Lawyers Award for a third year in a row. While up to 5 percent of the lawyers in a state are named to Super Lawyers, no more than 2.5 percent in the state of Georgia are named to Rising Stars.

Specializing in wrongful death, injury, and injustices, the partners at Williams Oinonen LLC fight to protect the legal, Constitutional, and civil rights of all people. It is our privilege to represent hard working Georgians all over the state. Whether you are an educator in one of Georgia’s 180 school districts dealing with an employment matter, a business owner in the city of Atlanta, or a farmer in rural Georgia struggling with a business dispute, or whether you are a family facing the loss of a loved one due to an injury or injustice–here you will receive the same excellent service of results driven aggressive advocacy.

Good Georgia Lawyers, the attorneys at Williams Oinonen LLC are committed to upholding their Attorney Oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Georgia.”

Good Education Lawyer Julie Oinonen recently won a hard fought Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC) case on behalf of a Georgia educator who was wrongfully accused of violating the standards of ethics and risked having her teaching certification suspended. The Georgia PSC wished to suspend the educator’s teaching license certification. The case was tried before an Administrative Law Judge in the Bartow County Courthouse. The Attorney General of the State of Georgia prosecuted the case on behalf of the PSC. The Judge’s case decision successfully vindicated the educator rejecting the PSC’s recommendation and reversing the decision to suspend the Assistant Principal’s teaching certification. The educator was very happy with the representation Williams Oinonen LLC provided. She gave us permission to share her testimonial writing:

“Dear Julie, I wanted to thank you wholeheartedly for the work that you did on my case. Your knowledge and expertise were invaluable in proving to the PSC that I had, in fact, followed proper procedures and that I was not in violation of the law. After more than 18 months of uncertainty and worry, I can finally rest assured that I may move forward in my career. May God’s blessings surround you in all that you do! With gratitude.”

Williams Oinonen LLC is proud to be an attorney affiliate of the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE). Teachers and administrators who are not members are free to hire us privately but Good Georgia Education Attorney recommends that every teacher in Georgia sign up for the workplace protection GAE offers which will pay for for full legal coverage in the event of a PSC charge.

Dr. Jackson Reynolds was retaliated against after she reported the abuse of her special needs students that had been captured on video.

Dr. Jackson was forced to report the abuse to Child Protective Services and the Atlanta Police Department all by herself. APS never questioned her about the matter until she was compelled to go on the six o clock news, Nancy Grace on CNN, and other news media. Soon after she was called in for questioning and was summarily terminated from her position.

Dr. Jackson Reynolds had been complaining about the paraprofessionals negligent behavior to her Principal all year long to no avail. She repeatedly complained (well documented in writing) that they refused to do their job and watched movies all day long on their laptops. She was threatened by her supervisor after she made an attempt to report it to central office downtown. Subsequently, in an effort to prove what was happening, she set up the video cameras. It was then that she discovered the horrific reality of what actually was occurring to the children behind her back: staff abused the children when she stepped outside of the classroom, behind the partition wall to attend to diaper changes, or they were outside her line of vision.

After reporting the abuse to APS, APS failed to properly investigate, not even formally questioning her as to what she had seen. Shortly after reporting the abuse, Dr. Jackson was horrified to learn that APS concluded the investigation without questioning her or reporting it to Child Protective Services, claiming they had found no evidence even though the only people they had interviewed were the two abusers and a non-verbal autistic victim.

Good Georgia Education Lawyer has been very fortunate to have a solid track record of success, including this past week where she won a student disciplinary tribunal for her client who was facing expulsion or alternative school.

Ms. Oinonen and her clients were very gratified and the fairness and objectivity of the hearing officer who found her client to not be in violation of the code of conduct charges and determined that “no further action” was needed against him in terms of discipline. The student was permitted to return to school and make up his school work.

Here is Gilda Day’s Response Brief in her case before the Georgia Court of Appeals. Many Floyd County Association of Educator members have wished to see it. For easier viewing, click on the brief and you can view it on the Scribd webpage:

Georgia Education Lawyer Julie Oinonen is representing DeKalb County teachers and Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) members in a suit against DeKalb County School District. The lawsuit alleges strong-arm bully tactics by the school district. See the Courthouse News article on it here.

Good Georgia Lawyer contends that this issue is part of the ongoing war on teachers and public education that is driving educators out of the profession and further destroying teacher morale. Each year, educators move to different parts of Georgia transferring to other school districts for any number of reasons such as professional career opportunities, financial, health, or family reasons. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit had to move due to very important family needs. They notified their principals and gave the earliest possible notice. Then they helped find new hires to replace their position, thus causing absolutely no financial loss to the School District.

The District bullied the teachers by threatening their teaching certification which all teachers need to keep in good standing in order to teach and maintain gainful employment to provide for their families. The District claimed that it was a sanctionable action by the PSC (the Professional Standards Commission, the regulatory body for teacher certification.) The trouble is that wasn’t true and the District knew it. Paul Shaw, Director of the PSC had already advised them that for teachers to resign prior to June 1st would not be considered a sanctionable violation of the code of ethics.